PS 3539 
.R92 S6 



1911 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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Copyright IQIO 

by 

Amelia Woodward Truesdell 



Printed by 

The Stanley-Taylor Company 

San Francisco 



^ Zbt &oul'S fcutimpat 



O Pars, awake! The humming-bird's 

a-wing; 
Still thrills the nightingale's sweet 

welcoming. 
Lo, from the hills — the Spring, her hair 

snow-splashed! 
Rose gardens burst to zvildest 

blossoming. 

But night ozuls hoot around Persepolis; 
Where jeweled feet have trod, the 

serpents hiss; 
To these dead halls there comes no 

Springtime bliss: 
My time-old search for truth is but as 

this. 

This quest sung he who took the Vine 

to Spouse; 
Nay Pars, why from thy thousand 

dreams arouse? 
If dark thine ancient doors, where 

dwells the light ? 
In Omar's harp, why wake despair's 

carouse? 



* ' ». 



Wbt feour* Eulmtpat 

Part I 



Of him who walked a thousand years 

ago 
In Persian vales, and studied human woe 
And the great Ruler's scheme to man, I 

read 
And wondered if aught more to-day we 

know; 

Aught more, life's puzzle-riddle solve 

than he; 
The Whence, the Why, the Whither, and 

To-Be. 
We still are groping for the Great 

Reply ; 
Through veils and forms, O God, we 

search for Thee. 



II 



He taught beneath the rose-trees of Iran, 
This poet, seer, philosopher; this man 
Who spared not all his learning's 

treasure trove. 
But vain his wisdom of the star-writ 

plan! 

Still would the multitude, like driven 

swine, 
On superstition feed, and call it wine 
Of life, though bitter with the creeds 

of men ; 
For sleek Tradition cried, "A draught 

divine!'' 



Ill 



Tradition ! Serpent-born at Eden's gate, 
Still deifying fetish, faith, and fate; 
On altars strange, his false lights 

burning yet, 
Still blind men's eyes unto their high 

estate. 



Tradition ! Keeper of the deadly keys 
Where souls are locked in darkness, fed 

on lees 
Of legends steeped in dreams, dank 

cloister weeds : 
O God, how could'st Thou look and 

suffer these? 



IV 



From wading in the muck of daily care, 
From 'midst the ashes of dead hopes' 

despair, 
Our souls still wait, with long endurance 

dull, 
And lifting helpless hands cry "Master, 

where ? " 

"A score of centuries since Jesus died, 
And Sin our daily comrade still?" we 

cried. 
His life! And could it be in vain? 

Then weep, 
Weep on thou mother of the Crucified! 



I loved the high Ideal I called the Lord; 
I worshiped at that shrine with heart's 

accord. 
Athwart the altar trailed a serpent Doubt, 
And left envenomed there the name of 

God. 

With the Almighty would you make a 

trade, 
As with a huckster by the road-side 

paid? 
So much salvation for so much shed 

blood, 
And thus your own just penalty evade? 

The soul revolts at such a sacrifice, 
Such banal temporizing with a vice; 
The sweetest life the world has ever 

known 
Is lost to earth for me — unworth the 

price? 



Who then shall weigh the thing we call 

a sin? 
For ages God mayhap to man has been 
More lenient than His sons. He knows 

so well 
How weak He made him from without, 

— within. 



VI 



All consecration knows the scourge: the 

scorn 
Of words which cuts the heart as did 

the thorn 
The Master's brow; and through a 

dolorous way- 
It mounts its calvary of crosses borne. 

Vicarious ever is earth's pain; that pain, 
The life-sweat of one body's loss or 

gain. 
None stands alone. Each hapless child 

of sin 
Is linked to me. See that 'tis not in 

vain. 



VII 

From Ark of the old faith my soul went 

out. 
Philosophy she skimmed, that sea of 

doubt, — 
But eddying circles in a darkening 

whirl, 
Maelstrom of words ! It was a sorry 

bout. 

Where ancient Nilus and the Indus 

taught ; 
Confucius with his measured wisdom 

wrought, — 
No foot-stay there, no olive-branch I 

found ; 
But wreckage of a flood of surging 

thought. 

Through mosque and Buddhist temple, 

silence-shod, 
To fires of old Iran and budding rod 
Of Aaron, back the devious way I trod; 
And lo! I found me many a Sphinx-like 

god. 



6 



But all their lips in silence were and 

scorn, 
At my poor search through shrines 

where ages gone 
Had left their manual of a bootless 

quest : 
For them, no star of some new faith 

unborn ! 

Altars and tombs showed man in tragic 

fray 
Of creeds, but still the slave of 

yesterday ; 
His dread of change, slow death unto 

the faiths. 
Better a red-robed charlatan at play! 



VIII 

And still the Potter's wheel is turned by 

Fate: 
He tosses out our shards of love and 

hate 
As whirls the clay about. We wonder why 
We hold such scraps and shreds for our 

estate. 



rrr\ 




Sharp-edged tools within an infant's hand ! 
These passions which we did not 

understand 
Surprised us by their mastery. Then who 
Had right for us, such dangers to 

command ? 

Did Cain, that life was sacred 

comprehend ? 
Then why distraught when he, without a 

friend, 
Went forth? Did Judas know his kiss 

of death 
Would mark for him, of heaven and 

earth the end? 



IX 



For Truth I searched a hundred seas 
and Jands ; 

I heard his call and ran with 
outstretched hands; 

But when I thought I had his foot- 
steps traced, 

He just had gone to walk on other 
strands. 



8 



All up and down the streets and 

country roads, 
I asked for him. Men pointed to the 

loads 
Upon their backs and dumbly plodded on. 
These body needs — accursed Eden goads ! 



X 



Within the dark I heard a voice one 

night, 
And all the air was vibrant with the 

light- 
some thought that crashed its zigzag 

way; and then 
An Error's mocking laugh. The ribald 

wight ! 

I thought one day I'd caught his 

beckoning glance; 
Covered with light — Transfiguration's 

trance — 
I stood with souls in white. I raised my 

eyes, 
Then hope was naught but memory of a 

chance. 




XI 



We read that Truth from one eternal 

place 
To us shall ever turn a changeless face, 
A phantom mirror in his hand forsooth; 
Of yesterday, to-day reflects no trace. 

For Science changes every hour her 

schemes ; 
Empiric I What to-day as fact she deems, 
Next year is refuse by the wayside flung; 
For souls in mortal need, what good are 

dreams ? 



XII 

I questioned Nature for some comfort- 
screed ; 

For high analogies; God's word and 
deed 

Must blend in one great scheme of law. 
Quoth she 

"The individual is a worthless weed. 



>> 



10 



The specie life with its unbroken train 
Is Nature's god; and this for souls in 

pain? 
As cold as death she reads her cruel 

creed : 
"You're weak? Then pass; the 

strongest must remain." 



XIII 

It is the old estate of me and thee; 
Dividual life lost in captivity 
Unto the whole. "What means the 

world to me?" 
Thus Omar cried. The end? Earth 

waits to see. 

Since his red wine a thousand years of 
work; 

Its bold results our logic may not shirk. 

But of God's mind to man, — the Unit- 
Soul ? 

Says Nature's law, "Away with shrine 
and kirk." 



ii 



XIV 

O Truth! Bemasked with smirk of 

every race 
Thy brow! How shall we know thine 

alien face 
By strange device of old and new 

disguised ? 
Yet souls distraught still seek thy 

dwelling-place. 

We would believe thy hidden brow is 

bright, 
Immortal reflex of the Essence, Light. 
Why change thy raiment with the 

beggar Doubt, 
With all her shams and trumpery 

bedight ? 

Too faint thy image is in science' well 
Thy mark uncertain as the sagas tell. 
O Truth, tear off thy masks, and pray 

make haste, 
Or Doubt shall cast us into deepest hell. 



12 




XV 

O for Ithuriel's heaven-tempered spear! 
Some spirit talisman that's crystal-clear! 
Encased within this casket of dull clay, 
What chance has man the truth to know 
or hear? 

Silent, Thou God, as Thy unanswering 

sky, 
Perhaps sometime, Thou'lt tell Thy 

creatures why 
The true and false are dual-unity. 
And now, have mercy if in sin we die. 



XVI 

Since Death turned down the Persian's 

empty glass, 
The sun has seen the train of centuries 

pass; 
Uncertain-lipped, we question still the 

law, 
And still to us the heavens are as brass. 



13 



j*fr\ 




And when the past has swallowed up 

to-day, 
The future from us stolen nigh away, 
We feel the shiver of the river-brink, 
Ah, then forsooth we'll grovel, 

whining, pray! 

Aye, pray to one we never have 

addressed ; 
Reach for the cup our lips have passed 

unpressed ; 
See heaven shrivel and shrink above our 

heads ; 
Ye Moths ! — my kin ! Where shall we 

then, unblessed? 



XVII 

My soul go hence ! This strife is idle 

hum; 
This life the beating of an empty drum; 
A Holy Grail evanished is this Truth. 
Back to thy nothingness ! Thou slave, 

be dumb. 



14 



And when again th' Eternal Sakis use 
This earthern bowl I found, but did not 

choose, 
Still other bubbles in to pour, its clay 
The flavor of mortality may lose. 



XVIII 

Will its new lips be only formed to 

sigh? 
Our questions, will it face with dreary 

eye? 
Nay, nay, I've wept its tears, this 

beaten clay; 
For man will then have come the Great 

Reply ? 

Beneath this star-splashed, zodiac-painted 

bowl 
Down-pressed, we crawl with smothering 

of soul; 
Is it uplifted for the Sufi seer 
Whose tragic songs to us through 

centuries roll? 



15 



XIX 

Omar! Ah, do you yet the mystery 

know ? 
Is Death a Fakir with no wonder-show? 
Or have the Pleiads now no room for 

souls, 
The I, the You, diffused in ether-flow? 

Through space as winds Death's 

caravan its train, 
Have you aught sweeter found than 

earth-love's pain? 
Flesh-robe of sorrow must you wear 

again ? 
Why dream I, mad? All dreams for 

man are vain. 



16 



/► *. 



Wbt &>oul'& &ubatpat 

Part II 



The I, the Creature Man, unto my soul: 
"Would'st look within the Ruler's great 

Earth-Scroll ? 
The folded centuries up-gather then; 
By History's torch new-lit, the tale 

unroll. 

" 'Tis travail and the sweat of blood for 

thee ; 
The fixed stars of belief reel drunkenly; 
Thy sun is blotted out; thy God 

eclipsed ; 
Go find us life; this chaos strangles me. 



17 



II 



"Rugged the moutains round thy 

pathway close; 
From peak to peak, far-glittering with 

the snows 
Of Reason's eyrie home. In what deep 

hell 
Beside thee Doubt, with torch inverted, 

goes. 

"Through legend-vales thou'lt follow pale 

Despair ; 
Doubt's poisonous night-shade, but no 

hope-ray there. 
When plaints the ringdove for her Yusuf 

lost, 
Thou soul, alone, wilt echo 'Where, O 

where ?' 

"But oh! through stress, lose not thy 
God; no God? 

Rather I'd be again my native clod; 

Would set thee free from this earth- 
hampered flight. 

Make haste: I see too near the broken 
sod. 



18 



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Press on till bulbuls to the lark repeat 
Thy prayer, thine incense for the 

heavenly seat; 
Till thou with morning's messenger 
canst sing 
Tis there !' — red roses crushing at thy 
feet. 



Ill 



"Set up thine altar then, emblazoned 

TRUTH,— 
The IN HOC SALUS of thy faith 

forsooth ; 
And thy libations pour, my heart's best 

wine; 
There sacrifice the treasures of my 

youth. 

"Thy JESUS HOMINUM SALVATOR 
too, 

This shrine may prove, — those altar- 
legends true ; 

As from the dying seed new breath 
suspires, 

From faith's dead husks Christ-life may 
spring anew. 

19 



IV 



"Stand up before thine altar now and 

swear, 
Thou priestess Soul, that to our God 

Thou'lt bare 
Thy brow unto whatever name be true; 
Forgotten be the seal it used to wear. 

"Thou'lt flinch not when old altars fall 

to naught. 
Theologies stripped to the quick of 

thought, 
And faiths, the sinews of thy life, 

inwrought 
With thy heart-threads, thou'lt give for 

freedom bought: 

" 'Tis spirit-vision with the single view, 
A talisman to test the false and true. 
No double thought; no judgment in 

reserve ; 
Mammon or God; thou can'st not serve 

the two. 



20 



V 



That thou wilt do all this for thee and 

me, 
Swear it, as there is love 'twixt me and 

thee." 
And as she passed, my heart wept bitterly: 
Yet 'tis man's only hope that thought 

be free. 

But oh! the hurt when old beliefs are rent 
From lives by church-yard door-ways 

long content: 
O dogmas sacred as the mother's breast! 
Make haste with healing lest the years 

be spent. 

JJx *JV *T*» ^X ^K ^Tx JJ* JK 



VI 



She came. Her step scarce moved her 

vestments' fold. 
The law was written in her lips' stern 

mould ; 
I cried aloud, "O my beloved speak." 
Far off her voice; her eyes were deep 

and old. 



21 



VII 

"Two graven tablets found I by the 

way: 
One chiseled by the Past, one by To-day 
All faiths must read by these or else we 

say, 
'Perhaps the master-gravers were at 

play.' 

"History and Science — friendly scribes, 

if reads 
The reader well ; they mark man's 

changing meeds. 
When Knowledge swings the world in 

line with law, 
She'll show God's purpose to the human 

needs. 

"For individual lives, encrusted long 
In chrysalis of creeds, are with a song 
And spread of wings outbursting to the 

hope 
That Fear as fetish is a primal wrong. 



22 



VIII 

"These crowds that with a nation's 

vigor burned, 
Whose souls for truth of their Creator 

yearned ; 
They sought a Christ but found 

Tradition's hell; 
What wonder if to God-distrust they 

turned? 

"But sons of God, the seal is on them all; 
Not potsherds set in rows against the wall. 
With errors drugged, they stir as men 

in sleep ; 
New life a-thrill, they would shake off 

the thrall." 



IX 



it 



Yea soul, but veinings of a leaflet's plan 
Go read," I cried. "From it the Maker 

scan. 
The individual, what is he to God? 
O tragedy of him, the Unit-Man !" 



23 



X 



And long I waited while she wandered 
— where ? 

*«£« vl^ o» \i/ »i# -J* Ox 

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Far off I saw her, resurrection fair 
Of form; her face a glory from within; 
I knew she had with spirits swept the 
' air. 

"'Tis Love," she cried. "A heart of 

love the key 
That opens now the one life-truth to 

thee; 
That God is love to man, and only love, 
To His own children whom He would 

make free. 

"In lights sur'fine — the tints from 

desert sands — 
Beside me stood a man with pierced 

hands, 
His brightness shaded by the mantling 

sun; 
His voice, — no sound so sweet on 

summer strands. 



24 



XI 



" 'Man is not left alone upon the sod 
Of earth, his home, though often weary 

trod; 
God's amulet of love, within he bears; 
No heart that loves can ever lose its 

God. 



(t ( 



And when thou bearest to the river- 

brink 
Thy talisman of love, thou shalt not 

shrink; 
And there the Angel of eternal life 
'Shall lift her Cup o'er-flowed, and bid 

thee drink! 



XII 

"And he was gone. The Mother-Earth 

looked up, 
A twilight on her face; the hasty sup 
Of sweetness, fragrant on the desert air; 
Earth sighed for yet a cup — a brimming 

Cup. 



25 



rfn 




"A tender mantle of his thought to thee 
Fell on me as he passed. Love gives 

thee free 
Salvation from the 'Body of this death/ 
The world-old fetish, dread of God's 

decree. 



XIII 

"Even as on Judea's mountain-side 
He spake. And then I knew with 

vision wide, 
Not lore occult nor dogmas complicate 
Made of the Nazarine, the Crucified. 

"But patience meeting wrong with 

meekness mild; 
Simplicity with wisdom of a child; 
And charity's clean hand that cast no 

stone, 
And raised the weeping Mary, undefiled. 



26 



"It is the spirit of the Master's thought; 
Not deep developments, by scholars 

wrought 
Of doctrines that would shrivel on the lips 
Which 'Peace and good-will' from the 

manger brought. 

"Spirit of love all human and divine ; 
One chalice ruby with his heart's red 

wine, 
From lip to lip, the Rabbin then shall 

pass 
In mosque-cathedral-temple, one pure 

shrine. 



XIV 

"And there shall come a time of 

Pentecost 
To thee upon thy homeward way, but 

lost; 
When 'tongues of fire,' a spirit flame, 

the truth 
For thee, shall heal thy heart, sore 

question-tossed. 



27 



"Then life shall be an Olivet of peace, 
And from its height thy vision shall 

increase 
To unknown kingdoms of His love and 

joy, 

Till doubts like waves on a dead sea 
shall cease. 

"Be it Love's Zion-heights immortalized, 
Be it Gethsemanes pain-solemnized, 
Be it the cross of life-hopes sacrificed, 
Thine eyes shall see the fields 
emparadised." 



XV 

She ceased. And from her eyes' 

uplifted sight 
A splendor filled the deepness of the 

night : 
Oh, mantle of the hope that covered me ! 
O Truth, the glory of that desert light! 



28 




XVI 

"Accept defeat as to Creation's plan," 
I cried. "There is no other peace for 

man. 
The De Profundis of a life is this, — 
Would god be God if I His will could 

scan? 

"Now in the sun I set the bowl to-day: 
What matter be it brazen bowl or clay? 
It gathered up the light of yesterday; 
To-morrow it shall draw a brighter ray. 



XVII 

"Once Ramoth scoffed and clashed the 

heavenly keys; 
One door defied his hand. 'What then 

are these? 
Insult from Him?' he cried. Then 

Astrofel, 
'The mystery of His Godhead would'st 

thou seize?' 



29 



"So I, the Self, this terror-stricken lord 
Of earth who is afraid to meet his God, 
Upon th' Eternal Sword would lay a 

hand, 
And would compel th' Almighty's final 

Word. 



XVIII 

"Forever vanished now the great 
god Fear; 

Released his captives, to the daylight- 
cheer. 

Gone too, the little gods of fretting 
creeds ; 

But Love remains and God is there — is 
here. 

"I see men perjured, mad with lust of 

fame; 
I see them reeking with the gutter's 

shame. 
Behold! they rise and call upon God's 

name; 
For Fear lives not, but Love with eyes 

of flame." 



30 



XIX 

O Love, our refuge in earth's wildest 

storm ! 
O Service, life-breath of a heart that's 

warm! 
A dual-unity, of heaven born; 
For love is service in its highest form. 

Flame-tints that shimmer on the desert 

air! 
Love-lights that make Life's sands a 

garden fair, 
Where joy and pain sing softly to the 

soul 
That God in man is Love in human 

care. 



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